If that subject made any sense to you, you should have been there! That was "Southwest Divisional #1", an autocross event. It was this past weekend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I went - Dan and I drove my car - and a few other people from Spokes were there, as well. I was second in CSP and Dan first, which was basically what we'd expected. Dan was gonna be first, because my car ain't slow and, well, it's Dan. Dan had told me some of the guys there would actually be competition for me - that I could take second, but I'd have to work for it. We borrowed 18" wheels with 285 width rubber for the back tires, so my car was running 285/30R18 on the back and 245/45R16 on the front. While this should be an understeer-inducing setup, we put a stiff sway bar on the back to balance things back out. The surface was grippy and the car very well behaved. The rubber was a bit too much in the back and was rubbing oh-so-slightly, so after day 1, Dan raised the ride height of the car just a bit. The car still has the stiff rear sway and the height increase, and I'm driving it around on the street tires now (which need neither), so the car's oversteery. And with my driving... Well, the car's a lot of fun! We'll get it put back together the "correct" way for both my street tires and my normal autocrossing setup soon enough.

As a female serious about autocrossing, codriving with a guy, I get a unique perspective of the events. I showed up at this Central Louisiana hosted event knowing very few of the people who would be there. But, hey, it's autocrossing, everybody's friendly, right? Well, not so much. Before my runs on the first day, I was pretty much ignored. If I struck up a conversation with someone, they'd talk politely enough, but people walking by didn't tend to say hi, or whatever. After I did a few runs, everyone was talking to me. All of a sudden, they figured out I might actually be interested in this stuff, and might actually have intelligent things to say about the course or the surface! Silly boys.

My runs on Saturday were rather bad, though. On my first run, I punted two cones in the slalom. Why? I dunno. I slammed into them quite solidly with the middle of the tire each time. I felt like my car was wider than I expected. After some advice from Vitek I went around again, and the slalom was fine. However, I managed a major "duh." I left traction control on. And because of how paranoid traction control is on the MX-5, and the shape of the course, the traction control kept trying to keep the car from sliding for a fairly significant portion of the course. AS long as the traction control was active (as in, adjusting the car), I couldn't turn it off. So I drove at least a quarter of the course with one hand on the wheel and one hand mashing the traction control desperately trying to get it OFF! And my third time around, I knew I could take the sweeper in corner 4 faster... So I did... A bit too fast. There was wonderful tire squealing as the car slipped to sideways, came to a stop, and stalled right in front of the next cone. Thankfully, we had four runs per day, and I relaxed a bit and took my fourth run slowly, which catapulted me into second place. Gotta love it. So frequently, in autocross, when you try to go fast you're slow, and when you try to slow it down, you end up going faster. It's about car control and smoothness, not flat out speed.

Saturday evening came around, and the group gathered in the host hotel, like they do, with booze and food. Being the evil non-drinker I am, I encouraged guys to drink more, drink more! The more your head hurts tomorrow, the slower you'll be... Mwhahahahaha! I don't think my plan worked, but I don't think it really needed to, anyway, as none of the guys I encouraged were in my class, anyway. ;)

My runs Sunday were improved, but I still wasn't driving my best. My first run was slow - I decided to take a relatively easy look around the course. On my third run, I completely botched the shift into third (yes, this was a third gear course for my car). After this run, a 46.49, Dan told me I could make it into the 45s... If I'd toss the car there, and if I'd give it just a bit more gas in the slalom, I could take off that half second. I responded, "Well, I totally botched the shift into third..." "You did? I heard it bounce off the rev limiter in second and then go in..." "No, that was it grinding going into third." "Oh, well there's your half second." So I went 'round again, and still managed to screw up the shift to third, though not as badly. I figured out how I was screwing it up, too, so at least I know for the next third-gear-using event. I tried to toss the car where Dan said I could, and over did it, so I lost some time there, and I took the 180° turn too tight (do not ask me how I did that... I have no clue) and punted a cone there. The raw time was a 46.0mumble - so close.

If I'm remembering the results correctly (I haven't managed to find them online yet), I was about 6 tenths ahead of third on the combined time. I'm content enough, but I feel like I should have been faster, and like I still have so very much more to learn and skill to gain. The National Tour in Fort Worth is but two weekends away, and there's a potential for money and/or tires at stake, here. Fort Worth is so much closer and so much more familiar to me - the drive out, etc. will be less stressful, at least.